ROSEBURG, Ore.—When President Barack Obama arrives here Friday, he will find a timber town still in mourning over the shooting that killed eight community college students and a teacher. But he will also find another deeply held emotion—seething anger over his calls for new gun restrictions.
Only a week after a gunman strode into a writing class and opened fire on classmates, many people in the region known as Oregon’s Bible Belt are quick to reaffirm their opposition to stricter gun laws. At least one parent of a shooting survivor says his family will not meet with the president, although his daughter said she hopes to. And gun-rights supporters plan to protest during Obama’s visit.
“He’s not wanted here. He’s coming here purely to push his garbage, and we don’t want it,” said Michelle Finn, who is helping to organize the protests planned for intersections near the small airport where Obama’s helicopter is expected to touch down.
Staunchly conservative Douglas County is bristling with gun owners who use their weapons for hunting, target shooting, and protecting themselves. A commonly held opinion in this area is that the solution to mass killings is more people carrying guns, not fewer.
A single unarmed security guard was on patrol the day of the shooting. For months prior to the attack, faculty and staff had debated whether to arm campus security officers, but they could not overcome their divisions on the issue.
“The fact that the college didn’t permit guards to carry guns, there was no one there to stop this man,” said Craig Schlesinger, pastor at the Garden Valley Church.
Divided
Schlesinger is among the clergy who have been comforting the families of those slain last Thursday by Christopher Harper-Mercer, who had six guns with him on campus and eight more at the apartment he shared with his mother.
Nine other people were wounded, some seriously. The gunman fatally shot himself in front of his victims after he was shot by police.
